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Question for MTs who typed on typewriters - B

Posted: Feb 07, 2014

I am asking this just out of curiosity. If you type on a typewriter way back when, what did you do when they asked you to go back and add something or when you got to the end and they said, "Cancel this dictation?" How in the world did you stay productive when you simply couldn't delete something or add lines and reformat easily? My hats off to you all...must have been difficult to learn something new, but computer typing versus the typewriter, it's got to be better now huh? B

I did. - and to answer your question

[ In Reply To ..]
Actually, many times the report had to be done over. We were paid by the hour, so no big deal if it was canceled or had to be done over, we were still paid for it.

I told a doctor once who kept changing his mind, "I will do it as many times as you want because I get paid by the hour."

The computers now make MTs more productive of course. Back then it did not matter so much.

Transcribing via typewriter - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
If you were on IBM wheelwriter you could backspace a little bit with the corrective ribbon it had. We were not allowed to use whiteout. If you got to the end and he said, go back to PMH and add this, you just had to pull your paper out and start over. We did have IBM Memory typewriters with which you could sort of record keystrokes and that helped a little for changing things, but I could never get the hang of that machine, was always 1 or 2 lines off, throwing the whole report off. One time I worked with a blind MT. The supervisor had to proof all his work. He worked all day and then took his reports up for proofing. his ribbon had run on earlier in the day and all he had was a bunch of blank papers.

I started when typewriters were pretty much gone, but we were PAID BY - THE HOUR mostly

[ In Reply To ..]
They could change their mind a million times and cancel all the dictations they wanted... we still got paid for our time. Line rate became the standard more so when the MTSOs took over... making many of us forget that our time is valueable and should be compensated... not just the amount of lines we can churn out. I even got paid if I had to - God forbid - get up from my desk to use the restroom.

It just goes to show how greedy the MTSOs are now. Back when I started (and before when there were still typewriters) we were MUCH less productive and yet still made decent money. Now, more productive and paid less.

Typewriter generation - I was there!

[ In Reply To ..]
I can remember learning how to type in junior high school with the typewriters that you manually had to return! How old am I????? Anyway, I too transcribed on the IMB Selectric and it was wonderful. Seemed so innovative! Actually I don't remember having that many problems transcribing, as the doctors took pride in what they did and did it right. I transcribed a lot of op notes and so they were pretty much right on. I too was paid hourly and just seemed to sit down and transcribe; not all of the hoops you have to jump through now and the QA crapolla! Someone we all managed to get it correct and no on complained and the doctors did read their reports. Computers have made it easier in a lot of ways, but not entirely. I would never want to go back to typewriters, don't even know if they are made any longer; like dial phones, but I wish I could have what I had then in terms of a good job!

Me, too - Old and Tired MT

[ In Reply To ..]
I, too, started with IBM belts and a typewriter. The emphasis then was on quality and not how many lines you could pound out in an hour, etc. We even got to get up to listen and try to help another MT if she was stuck on a word, etc., and yes, even to use the rest room and nobody was on our case about it. I made a GREAT salary and could actually afford to LIVE in those days!

Those really were - the good old days

[ In Reply To ..]
It was pleasant thinking about those days back in "the department," especially going over and "giving a listen," "lend me your ear."

Word Processors - After typewriters

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I started on a Wang word processor doing transcription and I can remember when we first started to use macros; OMG, it was like a miracle drug! I was paid hourly, worked in the transcription dept at a hospital and loved it. We used books for reference and helped each other. What it has become today is a shame and totally out of greed and thinking that technology is the answer to everything.

Me too! - Anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I started in 1982. Used a typewriter in technical college, then a Wang word processor at my first hospital job. After that, I worked for a big MT service and went back to a typewriter! I also worked with a blind MT, but she and her work were monitored closely. Like everybody else said, transcribing on a typewriter was a lot more work, but we were paid per hour and production wasn't a huge issue. In my case, I worked the evenings and just had to be sure to finish the H&Ps and consults for patients going to surgery the next morning. Yup, those were the good old days.

I started computer MT-ing on a Lexitron. - SFTyper - s/msg

[ In Reply To ..]
It was like freaking MAGIC! I loved that thing so much! The "memory" was simply cassettes (exactly like music cassettes), that you slipped into a special slot. Each cassette had 15 blank pages on each side, so 30 pages. It was such a novelty to be able to go back and erase and retype if the doctor changed their mind, or you made a typo! Our first printer was rather prehistoric - it was just a typewriter-type thing with letter keys like on an old manual typewriter. They went up one at a time, so they weren't that fast. Also, while printing, the carriage returned each time. When we finally got printers typed in both directions, without carriage returns, it cut printing time in half!

I bounced back and forth from newer to older equipment whenever I changed jobs. My first job was on an IBM Mag-Card - the predecessor to the IBM Memory typewriter. I actually like the Mag-Card better, because the on-board memory of the Memory-writers was quite limited. The Mag-Card had unlimited memory, because it was stored on these floppy rectangular "cards" that you inserted. We stored normal templates on these, as well. So you could have as many cards as you wanted to store things. The owner of that service was in a financial bind, and ended up selling all our Mag-Cards, and we had to go to NON-correcting Selectrics. That was kind of a bummer.

My next job was the place with the Lexitrons. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Eventually I took an inhouse hospital job, and they were on Correcting Selectrics. The job after that one was on Selectrics, as well, as was the one after that!

I stayed at that place a long time, and we saw it all: Non-correcting Selectrics, Correcting Selectrics, and then since I worked in a separate department from most of the other MTs, I was their "test person" when they got their first PC. They said there were going to get a Wang, so I went to night school and learned Wang. Then, what shows up in my office? An IBM, with only a tiny half-sized monitor, and NO instruction book. I didn't even know how to turn it on. So, I just put it back in a box in the corner, and kept on going with my trusty Selectric.

After several WEEKS, a doctor walked in and asked why I wasn't using the PC. "No instructions," I said. "Can't even turn it on." Once that situation was rectified, I had that for several years, with the Selectric as a back-up, and for typing envelopes, which the PC wouldn't do.

But the hospital liked the PC, and because they were SIMPLE in those days, we actually did do much more work on them. It was when the software started to become integrated with patient demographics, and scheduling, and other assorted crap, that they became less and less useful for actual transcription. We had many, many software changes throughout my years working there. We had MS Word, Word Perfect, some IBM thing, and something else I forgot the name of, and eventually Chart Script. Each had its pros and cons. For a long time we each had our own printers. Then they went to a central printer, and finally, when our office was moved offsite from the hospital (the beginning of the end, in my opinion), then they began switching over to the EMR, and our work was printed offsite, and eventually went to non-paper records.

When I left that place and joined an MTSO, the hideously non-user-friendly and clunky software those people used was a real shock. So was working on cents-per-line pay compared to hourly. As things progressed from bad to worse at that MTSO, I began working on my eventual escape.

wow, I'm old! - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I started on a manual typewriter. Then we got electric typewriters, so exciting! Then we got the wheel typewriters with the correction ribbons. Woo-hoo! Before that, we had to make carbon copies with actual carbon paper and for any corrections, each copy had to be erased with an eraser. As far as dictation, when I started there were these film-like circular belt things, then progressed to standard cassettes, then microcassettes, then a dictation system. For reference, we only had a PDR and a Dorland's medical dictionary. They both weighed a ton and there was only one of each for the entire office, so we had to put them in a central location and share. No such thing as Google then, no Stedman's word books. We all learned from each other as well as from the doctors, who had their dictation station adjacent to our office and we freely went and asked them any questions, which they were happy to answer.

I was paid by the line... - Trampled underfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
I worked for Transcriptions Ltd with a typewriter and we did not go back and re-type an entire report. If they wanted to add something, say to the HPI, we made a new heading; ADDITIONAL HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS and added it there. Sometimes I crammed the addition in at the end of a paragraph if it would fit. (And actually it often did fit since there was usually at least a single line at the end of any heading)

Regarding the "Cancel this dictation", I did basically what I do now - type DICTATION CANCELLED at the end. I wasn't going to ditch it and not be paid, plus they were always worried about accounting for every dictation.

First off, it helped being paid hourly! ;) I had - worked out an agreement - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
with the radiologists I typed for, that if it was a really short, like 1-line report, I'd just re-do it. For longer ones, I could sometimes insert extra words or a sentence in the double-space area between paragraphs. If there wasn't enough room, I was allowed to put an asterisk and then add it at the bottom of the report. In still other cases, I just typed an addendum to the original report on a separate form. (Our forms were in quadruplicate, with each page a different color. It was just too time-consuming to go back and redo them all with colored Liquid paper).

What I hated was the numbered paragraphs under Impressions. We agreed that I would just routinely slightly indent when it came time to type the Impressions. That way, if there turned out to be more than one, and they wanted to number them, I could go back and add the numbers off at the left. The other option was to listen ahead and see if they were going to number them. However, rearranging the order of already-numbered paragraphs was a no-no for me. I would only do that under special circumstances. I was nice about it, and so were they, and it worked out.

As for being better now, only if you've got the right transcription software! Especially for numbered paragraphs. One place I worked had a major problem when it came to numbered paragraphs, which the docs also wanted indented. The software would behave erratically if you didn't enter everything in a certain way. And outline form - gaaa! That was a nightmare.

In most cases, I think computer typing is far superior, as long as you can stick to an MS Word based platform. It's when you get into all these not-so-good platforms that have been further tweeked by the ITs to fit what that company wants, that it all starts to unravel, and in those instances, I'd have been far better off with just a good ol' IBM Correcting Selectric.

No problem, I didn't give a squat. We got paid by the hour...SM - Kitty

[ In Reply To ..]
rather than production. I didn't care if the doc changed/cancelled the dictation a hundred times. If it happened too often, I notified my supervisor that I had to change/re-type certain work in order to justify my time. A lot of time we used White-Out for small deletions, since most typed reports were xeroxed in duplicate, anyway.

LOL! You swore! - Olden Girl

[ In Reply To ..]
When I started, I not only had to use a typewriter but used a 5-part carbon. So when the resident said, "Oh darn, I forgot the history." You had to tear up what you had done and go back. Make a mistake, erase 5 copies. I used to keep the "unusuable" work though and sent it back with the box of tapes because I sure as heck billed for what I'd already done.

Ahhhh, those were the good old days. I only left out the having a 15-month-old and rocking a newborn on my knees while I did this!

White-Out - in a rainbow of colors

[ In Reply To ..]
Started on an IBM Selectric.

Back in the day - Just me

[ In Reply To ..]
I used a typewriter for several years. Lines were not counted and everyone was paid by the hour. In those days it was quality of work, not quantity, that mattered. We used White Out and those correction tapes that got white powder all over your hands, then got typewriters with those sticky correction tapes that you installed when you changed your ribbon, state of the art! If something looked really bad, we did it over. Our dictation was on magnetic belts and I never heard a doctor say, "cancel this dictation." In fact, to this day I have not heard a doctor say that after dictating a report. The technology certainly was not as advanced back then (I started in the 1970s) as it is now, but we really took pride in our work and were able to take the time to do research and learn, as well as help each other.

IBMSelectric - Memories

[ In Reply To ..]
My first MT job (in the 1970s) was in a multispecialty clinic and we had those lovely IBM Selectrics. Another memory that comes to mind is that a doctor I was responsible for had that famous poster of Farrah Faucett in her red bathing suit adorning his walls. I made almost $5.00/hr by the time I left there, 3-1/2 years later and when you think about what most of us make now doing SR, it is not much more than that. Forty years later and wages are hovering in the 1970s level. Wow!

Thank you all! I have enjoyed your stories! NM - B

[ In Reply To ..]
NM

I worked on typewriters - roybrit

[ In Reply To ..]
I started at the VA Medical Cnter in Pathology 1979. We used typewriters (before we used the ones with memory) and carbon paper. When they said go back or delete something or cancel dictation. It meant taking the paper out and starting all over again. We did not have standards of productivity, the only requirement was that Microscopic descriptions/Final diagnosis be completed the day of dictation and all Gross descriptions be completed the night before. Autopsies had a 30 day turn-around time.

White out in every color for 3 copy reports - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
I remember when the copies were white, pink and the 3rd green, and we would have to take report out and spend a couple minutes cleaning it up. Or, start over. In a clinic I worked in, we could tape a white sticky paper on top of changes if it was entire paragraph. Back then, we were paid by the hour or salary in the hospitals I worked in. In Medical Records back in 1979 to 1983, 25-40 jobs a day was average, 50-60 for top producers - all types.

Back then, we didn't work like race horses. If we could not keep up with the work, another person was hired. No one slacked off or they did not get a raise (of which we got cost of living and performance raises - 2 raises a year). We could stop and talk about current events. We helped each other and when line counts were begun and bonuses offered, when we hit an inaudible word, we'd switch places and type in each others report until someone could figure it out (so no lines lost).

typewriters - 1970

[ In Reply To ..]
We had to make two carbon copies. Erasing was frowned upon and we used little square white papers before White out which was also frowned upon. We usually had to start the report all over (and charge for the ruined ones). It was a miracle indeed but we got it done, at 6 cents a line. There were no shortcuts and no Spellcheck. We worked hard and God bless us all, we did it well! I found shortcuts to be a pain after toughing it out the hard way. I had a problem with seeing some shortcuts go through entirely wrong, e.g., "The patient was not allowed to drive her 'carcinoma' until her next appointment." I could write a novel about those days.

remember lift-off tape? - Old School

[ In Reply To ..]
I used to go through a roll of lift off tape almost every day. But no, we were paid by the hour so it didn't really matter. Not a whole lot per hour! We were actually called medical secretaries when I first started.

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